"I Have A Dream" By Martin Luther King, Jr.
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963

....
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

This brings tears to my eyes, for its passion, its idealism, and its orator, lost while fighting for his dream.
15,950 views 40 replies
Reply #1 Top
I've often wondered what race relations would have been like if King had survived for others to follow his example.
Would we have the massive welfare state we have now, or would the welfare-abusing blacks be encouraged to get off the dole and get on the employment line? Jesse Jackson definitely wouldn't have been able to play his con game, and he sure wouldn't be riding on King's coffin the way he's been for all these years, claiming the mantle for himself, you know? I've read accounts by King's associates that hint that he didn't really care for Jackson and his views.
I have a feeling that King might have had little time for the "victimhood" game and endless recriminations and guilt trips based on long past injuries.

James Earl Ray did more damage to our society as a whole than to the Civil Rights movement, that's for sure.
Reply #2 Top
... or would the welfare-abusing blacks be encouraged to get off the dole...


I can't believe you actually said this. I'm so disheartened over the racism that has surfaced as a result of the Katrina disaster. There are so many welfare-abusing whites, reds, yellows, greens, browns, etc. It's always defined by blacks with you guys.

I do think that if King, Medgar Evers, John and Bobby Kennedy, MalcolmX and a few other movers and shakers of the civil rights movement had not been assassinated, there would be a different racial landscape today. The fact that they were all assassinated within that movement's timeframe really does indicate some kind of conspiracy movement, though likely carried out individually, rather than as a plan of attack. Yeah, I don't think you racist assholes would be so prevalent today.

I posted this because I really do weep over his words and his loss. And, now it seems so important to raise his words again. I weep more for the number of racist dumbasses that I've encountered here at JU. I comment and am uplifted by those here who are not of your ilk.
Reply #3 Top
I posted this because I really do weep over his words and his loss. And, now it seems so important to raise his words again. I weep more for the number of racist dumbasses that I've encountered here at JU. I comment and am uplifted by those here who are not of your ilk.


Let me ask you a question, dabe....if I hadn't made that one-line, 19 word comment, would you still be so disheartened?
If you'll notice, I said "the" welfare-abusing blacks. This was intended to indicate that not ALL the blacks out there are on welfare (thought it often seems, to those of us with the eyes, and sense enough, to see, that it is all of them).
I was agreeing with you overall, because I do admire the ideals and message of Dr. King, but you just can't resist shooting me down just because of what I believe, can you?

What a piece of work you are, dabe. Heh....and I'm the asshole.
Reply #4 Top
Martin Luther King was a visionary and a great leader (although I didn't agree with some of his more socialist views), this speech should be the preamble to the Constitution of race relations. It is too bad that those who took on the mantle of "civil rights" all too often found more profit in embracing the exact opposite of Martin Luther King's dream and this historic speech.
Reply #5 Top
Almost another BINGO Dabe; I was tempted to post the King speech the other day with the headline... HOW GOOD DREAMS TURN TO NIGHTMARES.
You beat me to it. The poster you display is hanging over my bed. It inspires me every day. I was in Washington the day he gave that speech, I heard it with my own ears and saw a quarter of a million people weep, as you are doing now.
Don't give up hope Dabe, We Shall Overcome!
Reply #6 Top
will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
And as soon as you judge them by their character.
They will say it is because of the colour of their skin.
Reply #7 Top
This was intended to indicate that not ALL the blacks out there are on welfare (thought it often seems, to those of us with the eyes, and sense enough, to see, that it is all of them).


if you had eyes that weren't so clouded with bias and hatred (you've already demonstrated you don't have any sense or sensitivity by including racial jokes in past comments), you might be able to see the indisputable fact that whites collect more welfare money than do members of any other race.
Reply #8 Top
you might be able to see the indisputable fact that whites collect more welfare money than do members of any other race.


Thank you for pointing that out Kingbee
Reply #9 Top
you might be able to see the indisputable fact that whites collect more welfare money than do members of any other race.
---kingbee

Please show me. I'd like to see some concrete proof of this besides the word of someone who's so avidly liberal.
Is that why black comics are always doing those "white people on welfare jokes"? Ah, now I see! Gimme a break.

I'm not going to get into the murky waters of one-sided race relations, where whites are expected, indeed required, to accept blacks on their own, undisputed terms, but are not accorded the same honor. I've said enough on that subject. Think me a racist if you want, it doesn't matter to me. I know my own life and likes and dislikes much better than you do.
When the day comes when I see publications, television networks, scholarships and mainstream organizations geared completely and specifically toward the "white people and experience", without howls of racism and exclusion coming from the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus, then maybe I'll change my attitude. Until then, sorry.
Reply #10 Top
You are a bunch of apologists for racism. RW, you really do make me wanna puke. I just love these absolutely racist statements coming from you and your ilk, followed by all this rationalization that it's OK to think like that, and those who don't are oblivious. Oh yeah, you're so racist you cannot even see it. You're one of those kinds of people who lean on this crutch of self-righteous, sanctimonious, bull crap, with absolutely no cabability of self criticism.

You know what they say about incompetents, and there was even a study done to confirm this, that incompetent people are not capable of seeing their own incompetence. Same goes with, and is likely part of the inability for self criticism. You dickheads are so busy splainin' away your racist comments, rationalizing them, patting eachother of the backs for making them, then have the audacity to call those who don't agree with your dumbass bullshit the actual racists.
Reply #11 Top
ilk,
--dabe

What's this, dabe? You're using this word a lot hereabouts. Get a new word from your "Word-A-Day" calendar? Be careful how you use it; when you're ranting about 'dubya' drilling for oil in Alaska, just remember that it's "elk"; when you're screaming about us mean ole rightie racists, it's "ilk". Just a tip for you to remember.

II've never called anyone on here a racist, dabe. I do think that you're the self-deluding morons, though; you can't seem to see the inherent unfairness in modern American race relations. Why? Because you and your ~ilk~ are so (willingly) brainwashed with PC propaganda that it's made you blind to any other ideas or truths.

To you, "minority" = "opressed underclass", and always will no matter how many laws are passed in their favor and how much of your taxes go to feed the kids being pumped out of them like baby machines.
You seem think it's perfectly okay for them to do whatever they want; it's all justified because a few of SOME OF our ancestors enslaved quite a few of their ancestors.
The problem in this, for me, is that not ALL Americans are the descendants of slave owners. I'm not; my ancestors were farmers in Eastern Ohio and Western Virginia. Therefore, it's not fair, or right, for blacks to attempt to confer onto me, and those like me, a sense of guilt or responsibility.
How many blacks came to America from Africa in the years after the Civil War, and their descendants unfairly, and undeservedly, took up the same ghostly chains of slavery and the same complaints of victimhood as the people whose families had been here for generations, and HAD been slaves? I have to wonder.

You call me racist simply because I call it as I see it, that's all.
Same with LW (especially LW lol), the Doc, drmiler and all the others of us righties who speak up about it from time to time.

Sorry for seeing things differently, dabe, Kingbee, but then, we righties tend to see them as they are, not as how we think they should be.
Reply #12 Top
Please show me. I'd like to see some concrete proof of this besides the word of someone who's so avidly liberal.


This is from a December 1992 Ebony article--so it is kind of out of date.

Among the poorest of the poor--single mothers, living below the poverty line with minor children to support 39.7 percent of AFDC clients are Black single mothers and 38.1 percent are White women with children. Food stamp recipients are 37.2 percent Black and 46.2 percent White. Medicaid benefits are paid to 27.5 percent Black recipients compared to 48.5 percent White clients.
Reply #13 Top
Martin Luther King: great man, wise beyond his to brief time on the planet,

If only he was not killed, by racisim, and no matter what else anyone believes, it was racisim that killed him not some simple minded peice of white trash.
Reply #14 Top
Martin Luther King: great man, wise beyond his to brief time on the planet,

If only he was not killed, by racisim, and no matter what else anyone believes, it was racisim that killed him not some simple minded peice of white trash.


I couldn't agree with you more. Although that simple minded piece of white trash was likely put up to it by other simple minded racists with real power. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but there were a lot of civil rights workers and leaders killed during those days. That is the racism to which you refew, I believe, MM.
Reply #15 Top
You call me racist simply because I call it as I see it, that's all.
Same with LW (especially LW lol), the Doc, drmiler and all the others of us righties who speak up about it from time to time.


Sure, you call it like you see it, but from a completely racist mindset. As I said, your ILK are incapable of self criticism. All you do is criticize everyone else. After all these conversations about race relations in the US these days, I would like it if maybe, maybe some of you more racist leaning individuals step back and think about what and why you say the things you say, and why others here see you as racist scum ( especially LW sans lol). Self criticism is a powerful thing.
Reply #16 Top
Almost another BINGO Dabe; I was tempted to post the King speech the other day with the headline... HOW GOOD DREAMS TURN TO NIGHTMARES.
You beat me to it. The poster you display is hanging over my bed. It inspires me every day. I was in Washington the day he gave that speech, I heard it with my own ears and saw a quarter of a million people weep, as you are doing now.
Don't give up hope Dabe, We Shall Overcome!


Mano, I never give up home. But, I also never lose sight of the fact that lots of people are despicable racists, that hopefully die soon, leaving no offspring to take their places, having been taught by their racist scumbag parents to perpetuate the dream of perpetuating racism. So, if I am less tolerant than you with some of the racism I see here, it's because I REFUSE to grant them any leeway or condone any of their crap. That only eggs em on.

Having said that, I'm sure my outspoken distain for these racists also eggs them on. But, it sure is bringing the rats out of the woodwork, isn't it? I have no problem exposing these dickhead for what they are.

We have the same dream, mano. We just manifest it differently.

WE SHALL OVERCOME SOME DAY
Reply #17 Top
#14 by dabe
Tuesday, September 06, 2005


That is the racism to which you refew, I believe, MM.


john kennedy, bobby kennedy too.
Reply #18 Top
I was in Washington the day he gave that speech, I heard it with my own ears and saw a quarter of a million people weep, as you are doing now.


Another thing that you so poignantly point out here......
A quarter of a million people, 250,000 people were moved to tears by the speaker and his speech. THE SPEAKER AND THE WORDS. It's so sad that one particular poster (I wont mention names-LW) is hung up on the plagarism thing. I guess she wasn't moved.
Reply #20 Top
john kennedy, bobby kennedy too.


Yup, absolutely. And likely orchestrated by the FBI head honcho, that scum sucking racist at the time. I was working at a very large travel agency in NYC when an announcement came over the radio that day that J. Edgar Hoover died. The entire staff, approximately 50 people, let out this huge cheer. We absolutely cheered his death. That was a beautiful thing, and something I will never forget. That is why I posted that post above wishing for these racist scumbags to die. This planet does not need them. Never did. Never will.
Reply #21 Top
Dabe, I'm curious: how often do you go into the poorer, or more heavily black-populated areas of your town, as opposed to staying in your own area(s)? Or do you avoid them? If so, why? You have nothing to fear; after all, the noble black will only accost those whites who discriminate aganst them, right?

As I said, your ILK are incapable of self criticism.


Ask anyone who knows me, dabe, and they'll tell you that I'm my own worst critic.


All you do is criticize everyone else.


I'm tired of being criticized by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and their kind (or ilk, natch) for being what I am and so selfishly expecting blacks to contribute to society rather than to suck off of it, as so many do.
I feel the same way about white trash welfare abusers (and I say "abusers"--the ones who get on it and stay for life), but I'm sorry, every time I drive past the local Human Resources office, it's mainly blacks I see coming and going or hanging out around the front stoop, smoking cigarettes and BSing, waiting for their turn at the teat.
We have a friend who lives in public housing....she's one of two or three white people in the whole damn complex. Nearly everyone else is black (there are a few Hispanics thrown in, too, but the vast majority are blacks, so, at least based on this, don't try to tell me that whites make up the majority of welfare cases). This makes me angry, I'm sorry.
I don't begrudge it to them, not at all; I'm a Christian, and am completely willing to help those in need. If they need it, great; take it. Just don't take the handout every month and simply give up trying to stand alone.
I also blame the system itself, though----welfare is a trap, designed to keep people in the loop; it punishes personal ambition and motivation with reduction of benefits way out of proportion to earnings. I know this, and this makes me angry, too. But it CAN be overcome, if one is willing. The problem is that too many (of both races, but I always see more blacks) are NOT willing.

I admire Dr. King and his message, dabe. What happened to him is an atrocity from which this nation has yet to recover. Call me what you want; you're as blind as you accuse me of being, just in the other direction.
Reply #22 Top
That is why I posted that post above wishing for these racist scumbags to die. This planet does not need them. Never did. Never will.
---dabe

Damn, woman---will you listen to yourself? I'd NEVER wish death on you, not matter how ignorant and blind I think you are, or how much you irritate me. What a true humanitarian you are, dabe...so open-minded and tolerant.
Reply #23 Top
This is from a December 1992 Ebony article--so it is kind of out of date.

Among the poorest of the poor--single mothers, living below the poverty line with minor children to support 39.7 percent of AFDC clients are Black single mothers and 38.1 percent are White women with children. Food stamp recipients are 37.2 percent Black and 46.2 percent White. Medicaid benefits are paid to 27.5 percent Black recipients compared to 48.5 percent White clients.
--shadesofgrey

Thanks, shades....this might have been true at that time, but what about historically? Would it hold up then?
You know what I find most fascinating and annoying about those of the liberal persuasion in general? How very, completely and utterly, willing you are to surrender the evidence of your own two eyes and personal experience, in favor of statistics compiled by people you want fervently to believe. No matter what we're talking about...race relations, global warming, the economy....you're more willing to believe numbers on a chart rather than your own eyes.
That's just idiocy.
Reply #24 Top
Dabe... looks like we are going to have to find a new hero. MLK has just been exposed as a phony and plagerizer by someone here. I guess the ideals of freedom and equality are no longer valid today as we have all been misled. What are we going to do?

I feel totally violated that I have spent almost my entire life looking up to that man, campaigning over and over for his release from prison for his various civil rights activities, working the entire summer of 1963 to help organise the big March on Washington, only to hear a speech written by someone else.

I guess we just have to stop talking Dabe and start acting, actions speak louder than words anyway.
Are we supposed to just fold up our tents and go away now that MLK has ben 'exposed' as a phony? What are we to do?
Reply #25 Top
only to hear a speech written by someone else.


All he'd have had to say was "as the great speaker Archibald Carey said...." But, he didn't.